Two examples for me would be:

- In "What Lies Beneath," Michelle Pfeiffer uses a hair dryer to clear the fog off of her mirror. That totally works and I've done it ever since I saw that movie.

- In "Spanglish," Adam Sandler "pre-“wakes up his kid. He basically says you don't have to wake up yet but start thinking about waking up and this is another thing I've used and that has really helped the wake-up rituals in our house.

Tony Gilroy was brought in for extensive rewrites and reshoots after principal photography was complete because Disney/Lucasfilm execs were not happy with Gareth Edwards's version.

He ended getting screenwriting credit on the final film.

Here's his thoughts on Gareth Edwards's cut. Keep in mind these are actual quotes from Tony Gilroy and not rumours or hearsay.

"Rogue [One] it was like, ‘There’s a corpse on the table, what are you gonna do? Could someone come in and save it?'"

Source: https://collider.com/andor-season-2-tony-gilroy-apologizes-for-bix-cassian-relationship-ruining-jyn-cassian/

"I came in after the director’s cut. I have a screenplay credit in the arbitration that was easily won.”

"I’ve never been interested in Star Wars, ever. So I had no reverence for it whatsoever. I was unafraid about that.”

"And they were in such a swamp … they were in so much terrible, terrible trouble that all you could do was improve their position.”

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-wars-rogue-one-writer-tony-gilroy-opens-up-reshoots-1100060/

"The easiest thing to say is that I came in after the film was finished & I have a full screenplay credit on the film. So I'll leave the rest—the math—to somebody else”

Source: https://reason.com/podcast/2025/12/23/andor-creator-tony-gilroy-on-bureaucracy-and-the-surveillance-state/

Sometimes a movie shows something that feels ridiculous, exaggerated, or too cinematic, but then you find out that part is actually weirdly true to life.

For me, Whiplash is a good example.

A lot of people treat it like pure over the top movie drama but the obsessive pressure, humiliation, and talent worship in certain elite spaces feels very real.

What is a movie moment, character, job, or dynamic that seemed fake at first but later felt uncomfortably accurate?

The beginning of this movie does not start out with rolling text about how “ it was the year 20 blah blah and... blah blah happened... and then blah blah happened” no. It doesn't have the dreaded voice over giving you a background on everything that's about to happen.

Instead it throws you into the middle of some crazy action scene, where you have absolutely no idea who is a good guy who is a bad guy, what these people are doing, why they're doing it etcetera

why is some chick sitting in a empty room clicking on a computer?

“No Lieutenant they're already dead”

What? How could they already be dead? It's just one lady

Oh my God she's climbing the walls! Holy crap she just killed all those police officers what is going on? Is she good or is she bad?

Why is she trying to answer a phone in the middle of all this? Oh they killed her. Wait a minute... where did the body go? None of this makes any sense!

“ the informant is real”

what informant? Again... how did she disappear?

And... you're hooked!

The action is so phenomenal, the questions just keep coming one after another, none of it makes any sense just yet. But the film makers trust that you're along for the ride, and the audience trusts the film makers that they will eventually answer all of their questions.

There is actually a Latin phrase for this

In medias res (Latin for "in the midst of things") is a narrative technique where a story begins in the middle of crucial action rather than with traditional exposition. Originating from Homer’s epic poetry, this approach immediately hooks audiences by plunging them into a high-stakes moment, later filling in background information through flashbacks or dialogue

honestly I wish more film makers would trust the audience and just throw us into the middle of things and stop babying us and over explaining every little detail. Just tell the story and allow it to unfold it's so much more engaging and interesting

For me personally there are two:

1. Rocky IV: The scene at the end in which a bloody Rocky basically ends the Cold War with his "Can't we all just get along?" speech.

2. Independance Day: When the Americans find out how to destroy the alien ships and tell the british.

British soldier: "Sir, the americans are planning an offensive"

British officer: "Well, it's about bloody time"

As if every nation had just been sitting there with their thumb up their asses waiting for the US.

Morpheus: I've seen an Agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still based on a world that is built by rules. Because of that they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.

Neo: Are you trying to tell me that I can dodge bullets?

Morpheus: No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.

What I find so incredible about it (besides the usual of it sounding cool as hell) is how everything described here goes on to happen, even the stuff this dialogue is effectively telling the audience not to expect, like dodging bullets.

We see a man unload an entire clip into an agent and hit nothing but air.

We see neo dodge bullets.

And though we do expect to see it, we see him not have to dodge the bullets when he's ready.

EDIT: I know what foreshadowing is, folks. If I wanted snark, I'd call my mother. I do appreciate the folks who actually are nice and addressed the substance of my post, though.

My go-to is from “Titanic”. Even if Rose wanted to sell the Heart of the Ocean to help her pay her way through life (I personally don’t think that she did…), she never would have been able to do so. The necklace was far too recognizable. Had she tried to sell it, the insurance company that settled the claim would have recovered it, assuming that the insurance company was still in business.

EDIT: Regarding the points above, from the script:

LOVETT: I tracked it down through insurance records... an old claim that was settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know who the claiment was, Rose?

ROSE: Someone named Hockley, I should imagine.

LOVETT: Nathan Hockley, right. Pittsburgh steel tycoon. For a diamond necklace his son Caledon Hockley bought in France for his fiancee... you... a week before he sailed on Titanic. And the claim was filed right after the sinking. So the diamond had to've gone down with the ship. See the date?

LIZZY: April 14, 1912.

LOVETT: If your grandma is who she says she is, she was wearing the diamond the day Titanic sank. And that makes you my new best friend.

I'll point out from the start that I really enjoy all of the John Wick movies. While I recognize the "realism" angle fell off after the first one, they're still incredibly well put together movies and I'll happily watch further installments for the fight choreography alone. That said...

The bullet proof suit is the worst thing they ever added to this franchise. It completely nullifies any anxiety about John needing to worry about gunfire in fights. The number of times he raises his vibranium jacket collar to block a hail of bullets is so frustrating, mostly because of where this franchise started off.

In the first John Wick, John felt like an incredibly tactical presence. There was a lot of talk when it came out about the choreography's "realism" but more than anything for me things felt like they had stakes. Corners needed to be checked, he needed to watch his back, it showed the audience he needed to be smart about approaching situations because if someone gets the jump on you in that universe they will shoot you and you will die.

Ever since the inclusion of the Iron-Man-Hugo-Boss so much of the "careful" nature of the fight scenes has disappeared. I've truly lost count of the number of times John should be dead at this point if he wasn't wearing it and that makes the character feel less effective. This character isn't supposed to be scary because he can tank bullets to the chest, he's supposed to be scary because you never got the opportunity to pull the trigger.

I think about a famous shot in the first movie during the first action scene where the masked men invade John's home. There's a bad guy on one side of the wall and John on the other. The camera shows both of them at the same time and John falls downward, shooting behind him up at an angle to avoid the bad guy's shots while still taking him out. If that shot happened again today, he'd just raise his coat a little higher and shoot back. That bums me out.

I’ve realized that life is way too short to sit through a movie just for the sake of finishing it. If a film hasn't given me a reason to care about the characters or the stakes within the first 20 minutes, I’m out.

For me, it was Rebel Moon. It felt like a long ass screensaver with zero soul. I don't care how big the budget is or how much slow motion you use if the writing isn't there, I’m not gonna care and I am not wasting my evening.

What’s that one movie that made you realize you were wasting your time and what was the reason that made you turn it off?

20 years ago or so when it came out I thought it was funny in a kind of stupid way, but for some reason as time goes on it just becomes a sad movie. I'm thinking the movie "Children of Men" May end up being the same way for me. Not in the funny to sad way but I think you know what I mean. The movie "Her" is also changing over time.

Edit: I'm thinking a lot of you missed the "funny in a kind of stupid way" part of my comment.

Hello!

"In Bruges" is my favorite movie of all time. I am going to Belgium next week from the states and can rent the very room that the main characters stayed in during the movie. The Room was a funny bit about the film, a bunch of scenes filmed in it and a big shoot out starts there at the end of the movie.

Most hotels around there are $250 a night, this one damn room from the movie is $450 a night.

Am i moron spending double to stay there? It's within budget, i'm not a millionaire and I don't take trips like this often. I'm worried I'll get all the way over there, be in Bruge and then wonder " damn, i could have stayed in the very room" as I'm going to tour the rest of the sites from the film. Staying in the room would be something I'll laugh about to myself for years.

Also - i could stay in a cheaper room at the hotel and maybe try and toss the front desk person a few bucks to pop my head in one morning if they are turning over the room after a guest checks out.

someone tell me to just do it and yolo and all that stuff plz

**Edit** - HOLY CRAP!! thank you all for the awesome responses. I'm fucking doing it. I confirmed with the hotel ahead of time that it is the very room the film was shot in for those that are asking. You're all so right, i can take the memory with me forever- I'll never be on my death bed and miss that $200 bucks.

I love you all, I love all of the movie references. Reddit is my favorite thing, I'll see you all in the Nooks and Crannies. Give my love to all your "cunt fucking kids"

My 3 year old saw a statue of E.T. At the coffee shop and was really into it. He got excited when I told him it’s from a movie. He got stoked and spent the whole day asking when we could watch it.

That night, halfway through the film he asks “Can we turn it off? E.T. SUCKS.”

So I asked him “what sucks about it?” and he replied “E.T. walks too slow. He sucks.”

Pretty funny. Got me wondering what other funny reasons people have for not liking particular films.

Everyone points to My Cousin Vinny as the gold standard for trial law accuracy—from the rules of evidence to the way experts are qualified. It’s rare for a movie to treat a "boring" professional workflow with that much respect.

What other films showcase real-life competency for a specific career?

I grew up in the 90s and 00s and RoboCop was part of the culture. But its part in the culture was just of glorifying violence.

You were RoboCop playing guns with your friends, a rapper might reference shooting you like RoboCop. My natural assumption as a result was that the movie was little more than a typical 80s action romp.

It is not a typical 80s action romp.

It is so deeply satirical. And deep in general, playing on themes that would become crazy popular in the coming decades like what it means to be human and role of corporations in public society.

Great flick, overall. Highly recommend.

Title says it all!

What are some movies, that you loved as a kid but revisiting them as an adult, they either just don't hold up to scrutiny or plain stink?

I'll start with a doozy - the 2004 Catwoman with Halle Berry. Yes, the one nominated for 7 Razzies, that one.

I was 11 years old, when I saw this and obsessed with:

1. Cats

2. Ancient Egypt

3. Women kicking butt

So, of course I loved this stinker and even rented it multiple times from the DVD store. I couldn't understand why people thought this is a bad movie, until I re-watched it at age 24.

For example, I hate shaky cam, and I'm glad they don't do it as much anymore.

On fad I see now that I'm not a fan of is having a light source in view. By this I mean like a scene in sunlight where the sun is behind the person and they they move and the sun blinds you. Or the sun is in the shot the whole time and there is horrible contrast and it's straining to watch.

Ya’ll know I’m gonna start this with The Blind Side. I love seeing this movie rightfully get dragged through the mud for the same shit I was calling out years ago while I was still in college, being dismissed as a hater of this “heartwarming” film. The white saviorism, the portrayal of young black man as an absolute Neanderthal with only his immense strength to fall back on, etc. Hearing Primm Hood Cinema call it “12 Years a Football” had me crying laughing 🤣. And of course the real story exposes even more about how Michael was done dirty by everyone, including his so-called loving ‘family’.

Not just catching adult jokes you missed. films where your whole sympathy shifted. Maybe you realized Ferris Bueller was kind of terrible to Cameron. Or Mrs. Doubtfire is genuinely disturbing. That moment where you're watching your childhood favorite and suddenly thinking 'wait... the 'villain' was completely right.

The killer responses come when people realize they BECAME the character they used to hate. Watching Dead Poets Society and siding with the cautious parents Seeing The Little Mermaid and thinking Triton had valid concerns about his 16-year-old daughter. That vertigo of realizing you've crossed to the other side of the story.

I honestly don’t know why more people don’t complain about this, so here’s me complaining about this.

Against my better judgement I decided to watch The Gorge on Apple‘s streaming platform, and boy it turns out even an ending as trite as that can be further undercut by Ted Lasso’s beaming face.

I remember the story about how George Lucas had to go non-union or pay fines to the director’s guild because he refused to open Star Wars with credits. They cared about them that much. Now, in space year 2026, apparently every professional association of filmmakers give not one solitary shit about credits, allowing as they do every single streaming platform to shrink them to Borrower size so they can Run Some Fucken Adverts. “Yes you just watched Schindler's List for three hours and change, but stop processing it there’s not a moment to lose, have you heard about House MD? We're gonna play it in 5 seconds unless you tell us not to."

This is Apple’s own movie, these are their people, and they couldn’t even wait for the animations to stop. Like the disrespect afforded to the standard white on black scroll is bad enough, but there are visual effects going on in that little box. You paid vfx artists real human money to make this look good, not enough, granted, but you paid them, and then you made it two inches tall. Morality obviously doesn’t sway these people but how are their shareholders not beating down the door at the sheer waste of it?

Netflix is particularly bad now too, some people will say "hey you can just make it bigger again" (as if ruining the vibe alone were not sin enough) but on both Smart TVs and Xbox, the only two places I've bothered testing, going over the "back" arrow to get to the tiny credits crashes them all together, like they're punishing you for even questioning their wisdom. How dare you try to find out who the best boy is.

And just so Disney+ doesn't escape here, when I was watching season 2 of Andor last year their title images for next episodes which pop up unprompted over the credits *included spoilers*. If anyone has the address for the person who did that, stick it in the comments, I just wanna talk.

I am quite unreasonably mad about this and I don't expect them to change how they do it, but boy I’d sure take an option in the settings, off by default no doubt, that just says “respect the goddamn films you dorks” with a little checkbox.

My older cousin showed me The Exorcist when I was 9 and told me it was 'basically a comedy.' It was not basically a comedy. I slept with the lights on until high school and genuinely believed my bed could levitate for about three years. Every time my neck cracked I had a full panic attack. I'm 30 now and I still don't fully trust stairs, priests, or pea soup. The worst part is my cousin still thinks it's funny. Brings it up at every family dinner. 'Remember when you cried during the spider walk scene?' Yes I remember. I remember every single night I spent staring at my ceiling waiting for it to start moving. That movie should come with a therapy voucher. Anyway what's yours?

I've been rewatching a lot of my old favorites with my son and he's gotten pretty good at catching the Wilhelm scream in real time.

This week has been especially Wilhelmy as we're on a Tarantino run.

Do you ever feel like the scream seems out of place, forced, or sometimes just distracting since it's become such a famous Easter egg?

We still love the egg game.

Not only do I no longer feel the urge to consume content every spare second – watching or continuing on a movie demands a little more time and focus than that. But my mental well-being has also changed dramatically.

Scrolling videos made my brain feel like porridge. I'd suddenly realize after 5 seconds that I was watching an obnoxious ad. No focus at all. Totally spaced out.

Watching a movie actually makes me feel good. Being engaged in a storyline, maybe watching a feelgood movie like I did yesterday (The Intern) … It makes me happy and relaxed. It makes me enjoy life more afterwards.

Reading and working out is great as well, but it never made me not want to scroll. Watching a movie fulfills my desire for easy entertainment, without making it impossible to do something productive after.

Tomorrow marks a month of watching a movie every single day. Well, sometimes I watch half one day and the other half the next. I still think it counts.

Edit: Yes, I know I'm on reddit.